Recent research shows that making ships dump ballast waters before entering the Great Lakes might not be enough to stop the growth of invasive species.
Currently, freighters are required to exchange their ballast water in the ocean before entering the Great Lakes to flush out aquatic nuisances that might have hitchhiked from foreign ports. But a biology student at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Sarah Bandoni, has found that the slime and silt at the bottom of the ballast tanks carry lots of eggs. This silt isn't all removed when the tanks are flushed. Despite having been in dark and freezing conditions, when things become better, the eggs can hatch.
Probably 50% to 75% of the eggs have been able to hatch, which means there is at least the potential for some of these eggs to escape into Great Lakes ports.
About 160 invasive species, such as the zebra mussel, have been imported by cargo ships, causing damage to native species, including fish, and also damage to water intakes and other environmental infrastructure.
Raymond L. Rhees, Central Region president of Oldcastle Precast, Inc., Littleton, Colorado, has been named the new chairman of the board of the American Concrete Pipe Association (ACPA). Rhees assumed the chairmanship at ACPA's 94th annual convention in Tucson, Arizona, March 20-33, 2002. Three other officers were also named at the meeting:
Contact: info@concrete-pipe.org.
The Province of New Brunswick received an international award for adopting province-wide regulations that protect municipal groundwater supplies from contamination. The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) named the Department of the Environment and Local Government a winner of the Outstanding Ground Water Protection Award for its Wellfield Protected Area Designation Order.
The Wellfield Protected Area Designation Order is designed to provide drinking water protection to the 55 municipalities in New Brunswick which rely on groundwater for their primary source of drinking water. The regulation places standards that prohibit or limit chemical storage and land use activity that may be harmful to the municipal production wells. It is anticipated the regulation will be used by all 55 municipalities by 2008.
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| Nicholas Sonntag, President, CH2M HILL Canada (left), and Doug Langley, VP, Environmental Division, Delcan Corporation, accepting the Awards. Photos courtesy Globe Foundation. |
In Vancouver, British Columbia, March 15, 2002, the Globe Foundation announced the winners in the first annual Globe Awards for Environmental Excellence. The awards, sponsored by the Globe & Mail, recognize Canadian companies that have taken environmental challenges and turned them into competitive advantages in the marketplace.
The Corporate Competitiveness Award, sponsored by the Canadian Secretariat for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, was presented to CH2M HILL Canada Ltd. and Dofasco Inc. (tie).
The Industry Award for Environmental Performance, sponsored by the Climate Change Action Fund, Government of Canada, was presented to Forest Products Association of Canada.
The Industry Award for Export Performance, sponsored by Export Development Canada, was presented to Delcan Corporation.
Joint venture partners, Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc. and the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative (TREC), have selected Lagerwey Windturbine International B.V., a Dutch-based manufacturer, for the first wind turbine in Toronto, to be located on the waterfront at Exhibition Place. The contract with Lagerwey is worth approximately $1.2 million.
The Lagerwey wind turbine, a three-bladed 750 kW gearless generator, is capable of producing 1,800 megawatt hours of energy per year, enough electricity for about 250 homes. Delivery of the turbine is scheduled for September and commissioning is planned for later in the fall. This is Lagerwey's first installation of a utility-scale wind turbine in North America.
Each of the turbine's blades, 29 metres in length, will be mounted on a tower 65 metres high. From the ground to the tip of the highest blade, the turbine will stand 98 metres tall, about as high as the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. Estimates indicate the wind turbine will displace, annually, up to 1,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), 8,400 kilograms of sulphur dioxide (SO2), and 5,600 kilograms of nitrous oxide (NOX) -- the main ingredients in acid rain, smog and ground-level ozone.
Toronto Hydro Energy Services is purchasing the electricity generated by the wind turbine. Under the terms of the joint venture, Toronto Hydro Energy Services and TREC will install two wind turbines on Toronto's waterfront. Negotiations continue for the construction of a turbine on the second site, located at the Ashbridge's Bay Sewage Treatment Plant.
Contact: E-mail: cronberg@torontohydro.com.
The Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario (ACPO) is renewing its submissions to the provincial government to license the chemical profession in Ontario. The urgency follows in the wake of attention focussed on an alleged case of fraudulent practices by an analytical laboratory in Hamilton.
Unlike engineers and many other professionals, chemists are not required to be licensed to practise in Ontario. Nothing precludes unqualified individuals from doing chemical tests or making often complex chemical decisions. These decisions may affect public health and safety, impact on the environment or have strong financial repercussions.
For several years, Québec has required its chemists to be licensed. This came from a strong desire by that provincial government to protect public health.
The ACPO ensures that professional chemists also meet strict academic and experience guidelines, and that they adhere to a code of ethics. "But without mandatory licensure in Ontario, the vast majority of people practising chemistry go unregulated," says Ed Alvarez, president of the ACPO.
Ethical regulation of chemists in Ontario is purely voluntary. If the ACPO learns that one of its members might have acted unethically, it will review the case through its discipline committee. The maximum penalty, however, involves revoking the chemist's right to be called a Chartered Chemist, and withdrawing her/his membership. Because of the lack of provincial licensure, the chemist can continue to practise.
"Our relations with two government departments have been excellent, but a low priority has been put on this issue by the province mainly because of the lack of public concern," declares Alvarez.
The ACPO and its members were granted right-to-title in 1984, and the association now represents some 1,100 Chartered Chemists in Ontario. The ACPO estimates there are over 10,000 people of various qualifications practising chemistry today in Ontario.
Contact: ACPO, 1-800-260-0992.
Since environmental microbiology first emerged as a discipline nearly 30 years ago, this exciting and vibrant field has attracted countless scientists and students interested in the applied aspects of microbiology as it relates to the environment, agriculture, food and water quality, resource recovery, water and wastewater treatment, and human and animal health. The rising influence of molecular biology has resulted in the adaption of modern molecular techniques and sophisticated equipment to study microorganisms in their environments, particularly those considered extreme.
Now there is an Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology. It contains 320 articles contributed by 420 authors worldwide. The six-volume set provides comprehensive coverage of the various fields within environmental microbiology including: airborne microbes; freshwater; marine and estuarine waters; groundwater; soil; extreme environments; biodegradation; public health; drinking water; wastewater treatment; biofilms; protozoan parasites and viruses; bacterial pathogens; environmental biotechnology and methodology.
Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology: Six Volume Set (0-471-35450-3), is edited by Gabriel Bitton, and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Contact: www.wiley.com, or call: 1-800-225-5945.
A New Brunswick waste treatment firm, ADI Systems Inc., has landed a new job in China with the Hua Run Paper Co. Ltd., to furnish process designs and major equipment for the paper mill's wastewater treatment system.
Located in Shandong Province, the mill is expanding production and the existing wastewater treatment system is unable to meet discharge limits. ADI Systems already has a presence in China, with an ADI-SBR wastewater treatment plant operating at a similar mill near Shanghai.
ADI is continuing its efforts to secure additional work in China beyond the pulp and paper sector. The firm already has systems operating in Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, and Pakistan for companies such as DuPont and Eastman Chemicals. Contact: www.adi.ca.
Zenon Environmental Inc. will be supplying Holland America Lines Westours passenger cruise ships with a commercial shipboard application of its patented ZenoGem® technology. The membrane bioreactor will process both black and gray water for safe discharge into the environment. Gray water includes water from showers, sinks, galleys and laundry; black water comes from toilet collection systems onboard ships.
Until recently, gray water discharge has been largely unregulated. Today, the cruise line industry is faced with stringent wastewater discharge regulations on both gray and black water.
Contact: www.zenonenv.com.
The Saskatchewan Water & Wastewater Association invites interested parties to submit abstracts for possible inclusion at our annual conference and trade show. Opportunities are also available to present 4-hour workshops to treatment plant operators on November 20.
Please forward a one-page abstract, along with presenter bio, before June 15, 2002 to: SWWA Technical Committee, 439 Penryn Court, Saskatoon, SK S7H 5G8. Fax: (306) 664-0027, E-mail: krecsy.swwa@sasktel.net.
With technical support from the World Health Organization, 'Health Care Without Harm' has launched an international contest in search of cleaner, safer, low-cost technologies to replace incineration for medical waste disposal in rural areas.
Incineration is a leading source of dioxins and has also been linked to birth defects, immune system disorders and other harmful health effects. Medical waste incinerators also emit mercury, lead, hydrogen chloride, particulates and other toxic pollutants.
"While many good alternatives to incineration exist for treating medical waste in urban centers, low-cost solutions are needed for poor rural communities," said Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, a medical waste consultant who chairs the panel of international judges.
Applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent by October 1, 2002. Selected applicants will be asked to submit conceptual designs that meet a set of technical criteria. Winners will receive cash prizes.
Contact: www.medwastecontest.org, or Health Care Without Harm at: (202) 234-0091.
USFilter's John Meunier Products will provide the ValCartier Canadian Forces Base (CFB)'s wastewater treatment plant in Québec, with an Escalator® fine screen. The installation is only the second of its kind in North America, and marks the first time that the Escalator fine screen will be manufactured at the Saint Laurent-based USFilter division.
Twenty-one inches wide and 120 inches high, the equipment installed at the ValCartier CFB provides channel-type applications with continuous fine screening. The screen has few moving parts under water, and heavy-duty chains support its stainless steel panels. Each perforated panel has hundreds of holes one-eighth inch (3 mm) in diameter, allowing for fine screening in any direction. The screen panels' specially formed steps also help remove larger screenings and increase the effective screening area.
The CFB installation, which will treat 2.1 MGD, will be completed in May 2002. There are more than 600 Escalator fine screen installations in the United Kingdom. Contact: mmeunier@johnmeunier.com.
Co-sponsored by the BC Water and Waste Association, the Water Environment Association of Ontario and the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association.
Topics will include:regulatory updates and directions, organic residuals and biosolids quality standards and nutrient management, organic residuals, soil and water quality standards and interactions, public and regulatory concerns, organic residuals processing technologies and techniques source control programs, land application programs stakeholder education/outreach programs covering: municipal sewage biosolids, animal manures, food processing residuals, pulp and paper biosolids utilization, synthetic organics (including xenobiotics) in organic residuals.
Abstracts should be sent by November 30, 2002 to: Dave Forgie, Technical Program Committee Chair, Associated Engineering, 300-4940 Canada Way, Burnaby, BC, V5G 4M5. Fax: (604) 291-6163, E-mail: forgied@burnaby.associated-eng.com.
New environmental standards and practices allow for lifting of the five year ban on new salmon aquaculture operations in British Columbia as of April 30, 2002.
The David Suzuki Foundation said the move means that "business at any cost comes first" and warned that the environment is being sacrificed. It supports "ecologically responsible" aquaculture that does not pollute or allow farmed species to escape, damaging habitat for native wild species.
The provincial government has promised, "improved and new policies for fish escapes, fish health, siting and relocations, fish waste, and research and development".
"The high operating standards proposed by government, along with improved practices, will protect the environment and allow the industry to expand in a sustainable and responsible manner," said John van Dongen, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.